With 100% English Ancestry, I thought it might be really difficult to trace my ancestors back in England from Canada. Only my mother, her father and his mother were born in Canada. This Blog will talk about researching my English ancestors from Canada but also the ancestors of our son in law whose families stretch back far into Colonial French Canada. My one name study of Blake and of Pincombe also dominate my blog these days.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Continuing on with Parish Register 8 St Marys Andover

I completed Parish Register 7 at St Marys Andover and have begun Parish Register 8. Although I noted no Blake deaths at Andover in the rather high burials numbers of the early 1740s, there were Blake marriages and baptisms there. They must just have been lucky to avoid whatever the epidemic was that carried off so many. Since the priest does not at this point in the register note whether a child or adult was dying and the relationship one can not tell if this just happened to be a time when a lot of people were senior in age. If I ever have time to put the charts all together and look at family lines than I would be able to tell that perhaps.

Once I am up to 1757 in the baptisms then I will move to the burials and the marriages following that or whichever comes first in the register. The new year comes in in 1752 and the new style of marriage register in 1754. I think it will be good to have all the Blake entries up to 1757 though. In reality I want to have up to at least 1840 when I believe William Blake (brother to my Thomas has died). However, I want to get to Penton Mewsey sooner rather than later so 1757 will be my cut off date for the moment.

Looking at pictures with my children last night and (probably they do it to humour me!) a few more thoughts on some of these pictures. Definitely one of the people named in a Richard/William Robert Pincombe picture isn't correct. These were named by some of the Richard descendants a couple of years ago but I can not remember now if they were sure of the people in the photograph - definitely Richard and William Robert (brothers) are there as is my grandfather John Routledge Pincombe. Youngest son of the family Thomas (son of Richard) is also there. But the other man and the young girl are a mystery. I shall have to work away at them. Perhaps I can work out whom they might be.

I think I may also have confused two of my grandmother's sisters when they were young. I think that Frank Pincombe's eldest brother may be the male that I am unsure about in that set of pictures. John Edwin and David Henry are the oldest sons of Richard and Elizabeth (Dale) Pincombe. David Henry is also in the pictures and in this time period Frank and David Henry were farming next door to my greatgrandfather (and grandfather)'s farm. I know that Uncle Frank and his brother David Henry farmed the old homestead as they are there on the 1911 census (Ida Ormond was their housekeeper (their cousin)). Uncle Frank probably took all the pictures or it could have been my grandfather (neither of them are in any of the pictures though).

My Uncle Ed is the child in the pictures though. My mother would have been able to name all of those people that is for sure. It is lucky that she identified some of the pictures talking about them (in particular the picture of her father in front of the barn and herself as an infant in a pram in front of the barn).

The picture (also identified by my mother) with Aunt Martha and her two sons Morley and Alvin, my mother and Aunt Ada with Ida Ormond and my mother called her Aunt Ida although she was actually a cousin. Definitely that Ada looks like the girl with her head down in the picture with my grandmother and Aunt Sarah (I thought it was Aunt May but I believe I am mistaken as I look at them longer and with more knowledge).

I had an interesting email yesterday from an individual named Ernest Blake. A bit of a shock on first seeing the name as that was my father's name. He apparently used some of my information from my webpage to help link back to Charles Blake and Mary Prince. I most often receive requests about this family actually and finally put the will on my webpage since it is all I really know about the family and they tend to link Charles with my Thomas as the children of Thomas Blake and Mary Spring. I only find Thomas' baptism though but you never really know for sure so leave it like that. He mentioned that he might be able to help me with my search which would be very nice since he lives close to the Winchester Record Office. We will see if that happens. It would be lovely if he tested his yDNA though. I think he descends from the Robert Blake line (brother to my Nicholas Blake).